English 125
From David Carr’s “Journalists Dancing on the Edge of
Truth”:
Before writing this column on recent incidents of
plagiarism and fabrication, I spent time on the Web
reading all known thought on the subject, making
notes as I went. When I wrote it up, I used those notes
to help create something I am now claiming as my
own. Yes, I made phone calls to relevant experts and
did historical research, but in the main — columnists
are in part human aggregators — everything written
here reflects something that came before it.
So does that make me a thief, or a journalist?
It all comes down to execution. If I attribute the
reporting of others and manage to steer clear of
proprietary intellectual property while making a
cogent argument, then I can live to write another day.
If, on the other hand, I manufacture or manipulate
quotes or fail to process the work of others through
my own thinking and writing, then the Web — a
crowd-sourced scrutiny machine — will find me out.
My column will become a spectacle and I will end up
in my boss’s office explaining myself. (Carr)
Former staff
writer for The
New Republic
According to Joe Nocero, Glass wrote “an astonishing
42 articles over a two-and-a-half-year span that were
either partially or entirely fabricated. For The New
Republic, Rolling Stone, Harper’s and others, he turned in
articles that had made-up characters, invented dialogue
and imaginary scenes. When the truth came out, it was a
huge scandal; Glass’s journalism career was, quite
properly, destroyed.”
Former writer for
The New Yorker
and Wired.com
• Made up quotes and attributed them to Bob Dylan in his
book Imagine: How Creativity Works
• Posted word-for-word portions of Imagine in The New
Yorker without attributing the source
• Plagiarized a paragraph from fellow New Yorker writer
Malcolm Gladwell in a blog post
• Plagiarized other writers in three Wired.com blog posts,
used the exact words from press releases in five blog
posts, and recycled in his own writing in 14 blog posts
• An investigation by Charles Seife, a science journalist,
found plagiarism in 18 of 250 blog posts
Former
Newsweek editor;
CNN reporter
and NY Times
columnist
• Admits to plagiarism of New Yorker author Jill Lepore’s
article on the NRA
• Claims the plagiarism was accidental, that he confused
Lepore’s article with another one in his research
• Suspended by The New York Times and CNN
• Here is one passage Lepore wrote:
• As Adam Winkler, a constitutional-law scholar at U.C.L.A., demonstrates in a remarkably
nuanced new book, "Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America,"
firearms have been regulated in the United States from the start. Laws banning the
carrying of concealed weapons were passed in Kentucky and Louisiana in 1813, and
other states soon followed: Indiana (1820), Tennessee and Virginia (1838), Alabama
(1839), and Ohio (1859). Similar laws were passed in Texas, Florida, and Oklahoma. As
the governor of Texas explained in 1893, the "mission of the concealed deadly weapon is
murder. To check it is the duty of every self-respecting, law-abiding man."
• Here is Zakaria's similar paragraph:
• Adam Winkler, a professor of constitutional law at UCLA, documents the actual history in
Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America. Guns were regulated in the
U.S. from the earliest years of the Republic. Laws that banned the carrying of concealed
weapons were passed in Kentucky and Louisiana in 1813. Other states soon followed:
Indiana in 1820, Tennessee and Virginia in 1838, Alabama in 1839 and Ohio in 1859.
Similar laws were passed in Texas, Florida and Oklahoma. As the governor of Texas
(Texas!) explained in 1893, the "mission of the concealed deadly weapon is murder. To
check it is the duty of every self-respecting, law-abiding man."
Abad-Santos, Alexander. “Fareed Zakaria Apologizes for ‘Lapse’;
Faces Time and CNN Suspensions.” The Atlantic Wire 10 Aug.
2012. Web. 4 Sep. 2012.
Bosman, Julie. “Jonah Lehrer Resigns From The New Yorker After
Making Up Dylan Quotes for His Book.” The New York Times 30
July 2012. Web. 4 Sep. 2012.
Carr, David. “Journalists Dancing on the Edge of Truth.” The New York
Times 19 Aug. 2012. Web. 4 Sep. 2012.
Moos, Julie. “Wired.com investigator on latest Jonah Lehrer plagiarism:
‘I think the safety net has eroded.’” Poynter 4 Sep. 2012. The
Poynter Institute. Web. 4 Sep. 2012.
Nocera, Joe. “Glass’s Road to Redemption.” The New York Times 26 Dec.
2011. Web. 4 Sep. 2012.